1,051 new vehicles were sold in August, representing a 55.2% m/m increase from the 677 sold in July and a 37.9% y/y increase from the 762 new vehicles sold in August 2021. Year-to-date 6,915 new vehicles have been sold, of which 3,574 were passenger vehicles, 2,907 light commercial vehicles, and 434 medium and heavy commercial vehicles. In comparison, 6,454 new vehicles were sold by August 2021. 2022’s new vehicle sales are very much in line with 2019’s, as the figure below shows. On a 12-month cumulative basis, a total of 9,889 new vehicles were sold as at August 2022, representing a 6.4% y/y increase from the 9,293 new vehicles sold over the comparable period a year ago.
519 new passenger vehicles were sold during August, an increase of 35.9% m/m from the 382 sold in July, and a 53.6% y/y increase from the 338 new vehicles sold in August 2021. Volkswagen and Toyota were the biggest contributors to the increase in monthly new passenger vehicles in August. Year-to-date, new passenger vehicle sales rose to 3,574, an increase of 19.0% from the 3,003 sold during the same period last year. On a 12-month cumulative basis, new passenger vehicle sales rose by 18.8% y/y to 5,055, the highest level since December 2018, some 44 months ago.
532 new commercial vehicles were sold in August, representing an increase of 80.3% m/m and a 25.5% y/y. While all three sub-categories recorded better sales than last month, the month-on-month increase was largely driven by an increase in light commercial vehicle sales, following a recovery in sales by Toyota. Light commercial vehicle sales rose by 31.4% y/y to 465, medium commercial vehicle sales climbed by 12.5% y/y to 18 while heavy commercial vehicles fell by 9.3% y/y to 49. On a twelve-month cumulative basis, light commercial vehicle sales decreased by 4.6% y/y to 4,137, medium commercial vehicles fell by 2.7% y/y to 179, while heavy commercial vehicles rose by 0.2% y/y to 518.
Toyota retained its lead in the new passenger vehicle sale segment, claiming 29.6% of the sales on a year-to-date basis, followed by Volkswagen with a 23.3% share, slightly higher from the previous month. The two top brands maintained their large gap over the rest of the market with Kia and Suzuki following with 9.2% and 8.2% of the market, respectively, leaving the remaining 29.7% of the market to other brands.
On a year-to-date basis, Toyota also maintained its dominance in the light commercial vehicle space with a 45.9% market share, followed by Nissan with 13.5%. Hino continues to lead the medium commercial vehicle segment with 28.6% of year-to-date sales, followed by Mercedes-Benz with 21.9% market share. In the heavy and extra-heavy commercial vehicle market, Scania retained its position as the leader with 30.7% market share.
The Bottom Line
New vehicle sales recovered materially this month, breaching the 1,000 level for the first time since March. As previously mentioned, the growth was largely driven by a rebound in sales from Toyota in particularly the passenger- and light commercial categories, due to the recommencement of production at the KwaZulu Natal production plant, although Volkswagen also recorded a robust increase in passenger vehicle sales. On a 12-month cumulative basis, new passenger vehicle sales breached the 5,000 mark for the first time since May 2019 and is edging towards 2018 levels. New commercial vehicles sales however continue to hover around the 4,800 level on a 12-month cumulative basis, where it has been trending for the past year.
